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Foreign Aid in Disarray: Theory Gaps and Policy Failures

Several studies show that foreign aid fails in producing the expected results. Also, despite constituting an international practice, foreign aid receives little attention from international relations theory. This paper inquires how foreign aid can be understood on international relations grounds, after the adoption of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Making use of existing scholarly work, I assess the existing international relations theory literature on foreign aid and I identify relevant insights from other fields, from practice, and from the development of the aid regime. The paper takes the stagnating debates on foreign aid a step further by showing two major obstacles to a functioning foreign aid regime which rest on international relations groundsâ€”the current understanding of inter-state relations/sovereignty and of â€˜doing developmentâ€™. Also, the paper shows why understanding aid requires an interdisciplinary approach and finds that the failure of implementing the Millennium Development Goals represents a critical event which will lead to further improvements in the aid regime.